


Through the Door

by Raven_Ehtar



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bad Jokes, Bad Puns, Friendship, Frisk POV, Gen, Gender-Neutral Frisk, Happy Ending, Promises, Suggested dark past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-05-21 11:14:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14914337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raven_Ehtar/pseuds/Raven_Ehtar
Summary: The legends all said that those who climbed Mt. Ebott never came back, but Frisk had. Many, many times. Until they had finally found what it was that made the mountain so dangerous:Vines that like to trip people up and really big holes.Frisk doesn't mind staying with Toriel in the Ruins - it's better than where they had been before, after all. But they're curious about the stairs they're not allowed to go down, about all the time that Toriel spends down there, and about the rest of the Underground the talking flower tells them is down there somewhere. Down the stairs and through the door...Where they find a voice waiting for them.





	1. Chapter 1

Frisk had never been much for following rules. It was how they wound up in the Underground in the first place, really. They’d heard the stories about Mt. Ebott and had broken the unspoken rule to never go exploring there. Actually, they’d broken that rule several times before they were unlucky enough to find the one place where they could fall _inside._ The mountain wasn’t huge, but it still took a long time to fully explore, to look for whatever it was that was supposed to make it such a dangerous place. Then, when there were no traps or beasts to be found, they often came back because it was nice and quiet with no one else willing to approach it. 

The legends all said that those who climbed Mt. Ebott never came back, but Frisk had. Many, many times. Until they had finally found what it was that made the mountain so dangerous: 

Vines that like to trip people up and really big holes.

It was rule breaking which had gotten them here, but it really wasn’t so bad. In a lot of ways it was probably even better than life on the surface had been. There were monsters down here, just like the legend and the school history books said there would be, but they weren’t nearly as terrifying as either source had led them to believe. Mostly they were kind of silly. 

Frisk had been in the Underground for some time now, and knew them all. There were Frogits, who liked to be helpful and blushed green when Frisk called them cute. There was Loox, a big eyed guy who had probably been bullied as a kid, and Whimsum who was always so sad Frisk could never get her to talk to them. Vegetoid, who was a bit of a health nut, Migosp who kept trying to teach them how to break dance, and Moldsmal, who really just liked to lay around and wiggle. They reminded Frisk of a gelatin mold. There were spiders, too, who sold doughnuts and cider for charity, and sometimes a ghost called Napstablook would visit. 

And, of course, there was Toriel, ‘Guardian of the Ruins.’ Frisk lived with Toriel, and had done ever since they’d first fallen. Toriel had found Frisk and rescued them from the one really dangerous monster they’d met since falling - Flowey. 

Frisk wasn’t positive that Flowey was _actually_ a monster but it was the best they could figure. 

Flowey had been the very first person they’d met when they fell, and he had done his best to really hurt them - he’d tried to kill them after pretending to be their friend. Toriel had come to the rescue in the nick of time, healed up their wounds and led them back to the safety of her house.

That first encounter with Flowey had made them wary of all other monsters they met for a while, including Toriel. If something as harmless looking as a little yellow _flower_ could try to kill them, then what was to stop anyone else from doing the same? Maybe the whole Underground was full of monsters like that, ones who looked and acted nice, but who were just waiting until they trusted them to become the evil things in all the stories. 

It was hard to measure time in a place where they couldn’t see the sun, but that had all been at least two weeks ago, now. In that time Frisk had come to know all of the inhabitants of the Ruins pretty well, and made Toriel’s home their home. If any of the monsters they had met were just acting nice and waiting for the perfect moment to attack them, then they all had a _lot_ of patience. 

Frisk had long since stopped worrying about any of the monsters in the Ruins doing them _actual_ harm. Sometimes they got grumpy or played too rough, but it wasn’t normally a problem to cheer or calm them. Always with a wary eye out for Flowey, though. He was still a danger.

Most of Frisk’s time was spent at home with Toriel. Her house was adorable and pretty small, but still too large for just one person. It wasn’t hard to tell that once upon a time, she had lived with several other people. It also wasn’t terribly difficult to see that she had once been a mother, and was glad to have someone sharing her home with her again.

Sometimes Frisk wondered what had happened to Toriel’s child - or possibly children. It didn’t look as though they had just grown up and left, as all of their old belongings were meant for children, nothing which might be intended for a teenager or young adult. But then, monsters might be different when it came to that sort of thing… but Frisk doubted it. It was tempting to ask Toriel about the child whose room they now occupied, but they never did. It didn’t seem right to bring up what seemed like would be a painful subject.

They wondered if they had been too rash that first day when they had fallen, and they’d asked Toriel if they could call her ‘mother.’ It had seemed like such a nice idea at the time. Toriel was acting so protective and motherly, and Frisk… had felt the need for a mother, even before they fell. She had agreed, and Frisk had been happy, but all of that had been before they’d seen the house. The house with too many rooms, with old toys and clothes of a child when there was no child beside themselves; it was before they had seen how sad Toriel looked sometimes when she looked at them and thought they couldn’t see.

They thought sometimes that they should stop calling her Mama and go back to Toriel… but that might hurt her even more. 

Sometimes, when Toriel was cooking a meal for them and humming, or reading from one of her many books, or holding their hand as she led them to a good place to hunt interesting bugs, they wondered if they were just a replacement for the child Toriel had lost. Did she actually care at all for _them,_ or did they just remind her of the child who used to sleep where they did now?

As sad as the thought made them, it was never one that lasted for very long. There was no mistaking the signs of grief in Toriel, signs which occasionally flared when Frisk was within sight, but there was also no mistaking the affection she had for them.

She did everything that a mother would do for them, and never once did it seem like she wished Frisk were someone different. She made meals for them, made certain they were clean and their clothes all mended, she taught them nearly every subject a human school covered, plus a few extras, and she kept them company, playing with them, reading to them, comforting them whenever they seemed sad. 

In a lot of ways, it was a better life than the one Frisk had before they fell. 

And just like any real mom, Toriel had rules to follow.

Mostly they were the simple, common sense rules. Things like ‘don’t play with the fire pokers,’ ‘don’t eat too many sweets,’ and ‘put away your toys when you’re done playing with them.’ Frisk didn’t mind those sorts of rules. They were the kind where not following them brought their own punishments, whether that was a bruise, an upset stomach or tripping over a model train in the dark. It was more trouble than it was worth to _not_ follow those rules, so Frisk followed them without protest.

There was one, though, which seemed to be the exact same sort of arbitrary rule which had brought Frisk up Mt. Ebott in the first place. Only instead of ‘don’t climb a mountain’ it was ‘don’t go downstairs.’

Toriel's house was small and adorable, and Frisk had thought only one story high. But there was a set of stairs which led downward. Frisk had assumed it led to a basement and gone to explore. They had just gotten far enough to see that it wasn’t a basement, but a long corridor, before Toriel had come rushing down and led them back upstairs. That was when the rule had been put in place, and Frisk felt the first stirrings of rebellion and curiosity.

A restriction against going down there instantly made the stairs more fascinating, and their imagination ran wild with the possibilities of what could be down there. To make matters worse, Toriel herself went down there regularly. Every day she would disappear down the stairs, stay for an hour or so, and then come back up. The various possibilities of what she could be doing, alone, for a whole hour, where no one was allowed to watch her made Frisk’s head ache.

Was she building something, maybe a machine? Was she meeting other monsters in secret, covert operations? Did she like to paint, and downstairs was just a super private studio? Did she secretly have an entire collection of human children she kept in cages down there, who Frisk would someday join? Was she working on a special add on to the house, like a playroom or a gym, and wanted it to be a surprise?

It was fun to think of all the things it could be, especially when they were completely impossible. Frisk entertained themself whenever Toriel was down there by letting ideas spin as far as they could into the improbable. It made for interesting stories. They thought about sharing some of them with Toriel when she got back, but thought better of it. It would probably upset her to know just how much time Frisk spent thinking about the stairs.

Frisk had never been much for following rules, but these rules weren’t so hard to follow. Even the one about the stairs might have been fine, their curiosity easy to ignore after a while. They thought Toriel's rules would be easier than any that had been on the surface, and they probably would have been…

If it hadn’t been for the flower.

* * *

“Aren’t you bored, yet?”

Frisk froze at the familiar voice, colorful leaves settling around them. There was no schoolwork to do today, and none of their usual monster buddies were anywhere to be found, so they were spending some quality time jumping into piles of leaves and getting as many twigs caught in their hair as possible. 

At least until they heard the voice.

It had been a long time since they’d last heard it, but it wasn’t one they were likely to forget. It was the first voice they’d heard after waking up Underground.

Slowly, dry leaves crackling as they moved, Frisk turned.

A small, scowling yellow flower, which hadn’t been there when Frisk had arrived, had sprouted out of the ground a few feet from Frisk’s leaf pile.

Frisk’s heart sped up. It might have been a few weeks ago, but the memory of how badly Flowey had managed to hurt them was still clear in their mind. It had been so long since they had seen the flower that they had begun to think that Flowey would never come back, or that Mama’s attack had actually killed him. They were glad to see that she _hadn’t_ killed anyone, while at the same time wishing that Flowey hadn’t come back. 

Flowey continued to scowl, no sign of the friendly smile that he had worn when they had first met. They wouldn’t have thought it possible, but a scowling flower was actually intimidating.

“Tch,” Flowey scoffed when Frisk refused to speak. “ _I’d_ be bored,” he said with disgust. “Just wandering around the same places day after day, talking to the same idiots over and over again. Learning the fascinating secrets of snails, kicking around in _leaves,_ oh, yes. Very fun, very interesting, not at all a burden on my attention or my sanity.” A small vine sprouted from the ground beside Flowey and batted at an orange leaf irritably. It split in two and tumbled away.

Frisk stared at him, unsure what to do. Had Flowey come just to talk to them, or was he going to try and hurt them again? Under their concealing leaf pile, Frisk’s hand crept to their pocket, where they’d put the cell phone Mama had given them. Their fingers also brushed across the toy knife they’d found weeks ago. It was only a toy, but would it work if they needed it?

_“Aren’t you bored?”_ Flowey growled, making Frisk grip the phone tighter. “Are you really satisfied to just sit around day after day? Don’t you want to go home?”

“Not really,” they mumbled into the leaves. Frisk thought they’d been quiet enough to not be heard, but for something that had no ears, Flowey had sharp hearing.

“Is that right? We decide that the Ruins are so much better than the surface? I can see why you would like it.” Flowey looked around them with a sneer. “No sun, no space, no _air,_ just monsters who attack you on sight, no matter how good a ‘friend’ you are to them. Seriously, kid,” the flower’s expression softened into something almost cajoling. “What does this place have that your home didn’t have, and which was tons better?”

It didn’t take much thought to come up with the one example where, even if there were nothing else to keep them in the Underground, would have them stay willingly. Still, they hesitated to tell Flowey. They didn’t trust him, and telling him something so close to their heart didn’t seem like the _best_ idea… Then again, so long as he was only talking he wasn’t attacking.

“It has Mama,” they said, trying to sound defiant and triumphant at the same time. 

Flowey froze for a second, staring at them like they had just spoken in a language he didn’t understand. Then his face contorted in disbelief. “ _Her?_ You’re staying because of- of _Toriel?_ That weak, useless--?” Flowey stopped himself and tossed his head to a side, away from Frisk.

Frisk stared at the flower. They didn’t think Flowey would like Toriel much, considering what had happened the last time they had seen each other. But they didn’t think that ‘weak and useless’ would have been the words he would use to describe her, since she had blasted him away with only one shot of her magic. They wondered how much Flowey and Mama had interacted before they’d come to the Underground, how much they knew about each other.

When Flowey turned back to them his face was back to what Frisk was starting to think of as his ‘neutral scowl.’ “That has got to be one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard,” he said. “And I have heard a _lot_ of stupid things. _Why_ the _hell_ would you stay for _her?_ ”

“Because she’s nice,” they said defensively. They didn’t know what history Flowey had with Mama, but it couldn’t be worth that much venom. “She takes care of me, feeds me, protects me--“

Flowey’s laugh cut them off. “Is that what you think? That she cares about you? Are you serious? I know you’ve seen everything inside her dumpy little house. You’ve seen the room with all the kid’s stuff in it. You’ve seen the little chair she has at the table. Kinda weird for someone with no kids to have all that stuff for kids, isn’t it? Never wondered about that, not even once?”

“… I know she used to have another kid,” Frisk admitted. “I don’t know what happened to them, though.”

“And you seriously think, with her holding onto the toys of her precious child for who knows how long, that she’s doing all of this because she cares about _you?_ ” When Frisk didn’t answer right away the flower grinned horribly. “The day you fell into the Underground was the day that woman got back the child she lost years ago. The day she saved you was the day she was able to do with you what she wasn’t able to do for them. Do you _really_ think she sees you as your own person? I’ll bet she doesn’t even call you by your name, does she?”

Frisk froze. Like an instant replay, every conversation they’d had with Mama for nearly a month flashed through their brain, and… no. Not once could they recall her calling them ‘Frisk.’ Always ‘my child,’ or ‘little one,’ or ‘sweet one.’ Not once had it actually been their name. 

What they were thinking must have shown on their face, as Flowey’s smile only became more twisted. “She’s _using_ you, moron. You’re just a replacement for the child she lost. For the one she _really_ loved.”

Frisk flinched. 

“It’s why she’s so desperate to keep you here,” he went on. “Even if you are a human, and even if it _would_ be safer for you on the surface, she’s too selfish to let that happen. She wouldn’t be able to stand losing _another_ child. I’ll bet she doesn’t let you go down those stairs, does she?”

They shook their head without thinking and Flowey nodded. “Because that’s the way _out._ ” He grinned widely when Frisk’s head jerked up. “Oh, interested now? Did you think that _this,_ ” he waved vaguely around with a vine, “was all there was to the Underground? No. there’s much, much more, and the way to it all is down those stairs in Toriel's house. There’s even a way back to the surface if you go far enough. You could go back home if you could just make it down those stairs. But even if you don’t want to go home,” Flowey’s grin became sly, “don’t you want to see more of the Underground than just the Ruins?”

Frisk remained silent for some time, uncertain of their own feelings. For some reason they had never thought there would be much more to the Underground than the Ruins. The idea of there being more, with even more monsters to meet made their feet itch with the need to explore. At the same time, though, their heart felt like lead in their chest when they thought of Mama. Had she really… only been using them as a replacement?

Flowey chuckled. It wasn’t a very nice sound. “That’s right. You give it some thought, human. Think how much you want to stay here, knowing every time Toriel looks at you she’s actually seeing her own kid she couldn’t save. Give that a loooooot of thought, and remember the way out is just _right there._ ”

With a wink, the flower pulled himself beck below the ground. Frisk was just beginning to relax when he suddenly reappeared a few feet away.

“And remember,” he called, “there’s no harm in just taking a peek, is there?”

He disappeared again. After several minutes of silence, Frisk decided he was probably gone for real, and finally let go of their cell phone. The leaf pile no longer seemed like such a great place to play, but it made for a comfortable place to sit.

And they had a lot of thinking to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And boom, there we go. This fic has five parts in total, one up each Saturday. See you then! ♥
> 
> I'm on tumblr, [come say hi!](http://ehtarwrites.tumblr.com/)


	2. Chapter 2

Frisk waved goodbye to Toriel until she was completely out of sight. When she was gone, they were immediately overwhelmed with excitement and apprehension. 

Today was the first day since they had arrived that Mama was leaving the little house for more than a few minutes and wasn’t taking Frisk along. It was to be a long trip, she’d said, one which would take her outside the Ruins to restock them on some of the essentials. Like snails. She took a bucket and basket with her and told Frisk that she would be gone only a couple of hours. 

A couple of hours all to themselves! Frisk’s skin prickled with the abrupt freedom. It wasn’t as though Mama were a tyrant, but it was still a nice feeling, knowing there was no one watching their every move. They could do whatever they wanted with no repercussions. 

And Frisk knew exactly what they wanted to do. 

They waited for what felt like half an hour, but which could have been only two minutes, to see if Toriel would suddenly remember something and come back. When she did not, they ran back into the house, butterflies spinning up from their stomach to flutter around their heart. 

With that same exhilarating sensation of independence and rebellion which had filled them every time they’d climbed Mt. Ebott, they practically tumbled down the forbidden stairs. 

They ran all the way down the steps, certain they would hear Toriel's voice behind them at any moment. Frisk only slowed when they reached the furthest point they had ever managed to come before, which wasn’t too far from the bottom of the stairs. It was dark down here, and they didn’t know the way. There could be twists, turns or dips along the path, so Frisk would have to be cautious in how they picked their way. 

Taking a deep breath, their heart a giant butterfly amid the swarm in their chest, Frisk put their hand against the cold stone wall and went on, slowly.

It wasn’t just that it was dark and that they didn’t know their way, Frisk admitted to themselves. The butterflies that were spreading from their core to fill up every corner of their body were not just butterflies of excitement, but fear as well. They had never been much for rules, but this one _felt_ more important than any other they had broken, even the one which had led to their fall into the Underground. This was one of Mama’s rules, and if Flowey were right, it was also one of her secrets. 

Flowey…

Frisk paused a second in the corridor, arranging their thoughts around the talking flower. They had done a lot of thinking since the last time they had seen him. Mostly it had consisted of questioning how much Mama actually cared for _them_ and how much she might be using them as a stand in for her real child. It was a hard thing to think about, but they had decided that it was just Flowey trying to get under their skin, to make them doubt or hate Toriel. They didn’t know why he would want to do that, but it seemed more likely than Mama using them. 

They were almost completely sure about that. 

Since talking to him, though, they had tried to carefully raise the subject of what lay beyond the Ruins with Mama. When they had, slipping it in as nonchalantly as they could during one of their lessons, she had gone very quiet. 

‘It seems like there’s a lot more to the Underground than just the Ruins,’ they’d said while going through more recent monster history.

‘… yes,’ she’d said after a long pause.

Frisk had thought about just letting the subject drop immediately, thinking it was enough just to get her to admit to one of the revelations Flowey had dropped… but if they stopped now they would have to find a way to bring it up again if they wanted to know more. 

‘Are there more monsters out there?’

‘Yes.’

‘When will we go out and see it, meet the monsters?’

Mama had turned away then, as though she were going to fetch another book to read from, but she didn’t move from her spot. ‘Never, my child.’

Frisk had stared at Mama’s back, unable to see or guess at her expression. ‘But… but why not? I would like to meet more monsters.’

Mama’s head had bowed. ‘I know you would. But it’s not possible. It is far too dangerous for you to venture out beyond the Ruins.’

They’d tried smiling at Mama’s back, even though she couldn’t see it, their voice as light and airy as possible. ‘But I’ve gotten so good at getting out of fights with the monsters here, I don’t even get hurt anymore. And with you there with me, there’s no way t--‘

_‘No!’_

It was the first time Mama had ever yelled at them, and even though she hadn’t been looking at them… they could still remember how startled they’d been, how guilty they’d felt to make her angry. 

A few hot, embarrassed moments passed before Mama had turned back to them, her eyes sad. ‘I cannot protect you from _every_ danger, my child. Beyond these Ruins, there are many who would do you great harm. There are those who would kill you if they could, because you are a human. I cannot protect you from all of them. And if _Asgore_ knew you were here…’ She’d trailed off, unable to meet Frisk’s eye.

They’d gotten up and taken Mama’s clawed hand in their’s. They’d smiled up in her pretty, white furred face, and told her, ‘It’s okay, Mama. I won’t leave.’

She’d smiled as though given the greatest gift in the world. 

And now Frisk was breaking her rule, going down the tunnel which would lead them to the outside - if Flowey had told the truth. Frisk had never told Mama what they suspected was down the stairs, and she had done nothing to make them harder to get to, even after they’d mentioned leaving the Ruins. 

But it wasn’t as though they were _actually_ leaving, so they weren’t breaking their promise. They were just going to take a quick look and then come right back, long before Mama came home. Everything would be fine. 

Frisk walked on, filled with butterflies and determination. 

The corridor was long, but like most of the Ruins it was built rather than natural stone, and in better shape than a lot of the rest of the Ruins, so their worry of uneven floors or fallen pillars went unrealized. There was one turn, a ninety degree to the left, and the hall continued on as straight as before. It wasn’t long before they came to what they had been anticipating, what they’d been imagining since Flowey had left them in the leaf pile.

A door.

Something so simple, Frisk had seen hundreds in their short life, and it made their butterfly heart thump painfully in its cage of ribs. Their fingertips began to tingle as the internal fluttering only spread, further and further, to every part of them.

This was the way out, where they could escape to the rest of the Underground, where they could find their way back to the surface if they really wanted to. They could throw open the door and run out, put so much distance between their back and the Ruins before Toriel came back that she would never, ever find them.

Frisk shook their head. That wasn’t why they were here. They were just here to look, to see the outside, that was all. Then they would go back. They would go back and do their schoolwork and whatever Mama wanted them to do. 

The fluttering inside them was getting so bad, they thought they might float away. Or explode. Before they could lose their nerve completely, they took hold of the cold metal handle and heaved the door open. 

On the other side there was more corridor.

Frisk stared, then let out a sigh. Of course Flowey had lied to them about the exit. He wasn’t exactly the nicest person around, and he _did_ say that he was bored. He probably just played this stupid trick to see if Frisk would fall for it. Actually, he probably wanted them to get into trouble with Mama, like how he wanted them to mistrust Mama. 

Well, neither plot had worked. They still loved Mama just as much as they had before, and they had been so careful on this experiment that they were in no danger of getting into any trouble. 

Relieved, if a little disappointed, Frisk was just closing the door when a cold breeze brushed across their face, bringing with it a very faint, far off sound of… tapping?

They froze in place, the door halfway between open and shut. 

Breezes were rare in the Underground, or at least they had been the entire time Frisk had been there. It always came as a little bit of a surprise whenever the fallen leaves would dance on their own, or when their hair would lift away from their face. It seemed like wind should be even less common here, in the hallways under Toriel's house. 

And what was that sound? Had a Froggit or a Migosp found their way down here?

Frisk hesitated on the threshold a moment or two, and then pulled the door all the way open again. There was no stray stone to use as a stop, but the door should be heavy enough to stay open on its own. 

If they were already here, then they might as well investigate everything, right?

The second section of the corridor was longer than what had been before the door, with no curves or turns in it whatsoever. Frisk was beginning to wonder if it would ever come to an end when the tapping noise they thought they’d heard before came again, only much louder. And there was a voice.

Frisk froze. A voice meant another person, and down here that meant a monster. Mama’s warning flashed through their mind again, ‘There are those who would kill you if they could, because you are human.’

Maybe Flowey had been telling nothing but the truth the whole time, and only wanted them here because it would get them killed. 

But turning back now, just when there were about to discover something interesting seemed like a stupid thing to do. What would be the point of it all if all that they discovered was an empty tunnel and a mysterious sound? So Frisk swallowed hard, gathered up their courage and walked forward, even more quietly than before. 

The tunnel was dark, but not black, and eventually they could make out something in the distance. An end to the tunnel. 

Another door. 

Frisk glanced around, but there was nothing else to see. There was only tunnel and the door, even more ornate than the first they had gone through. They were just wondering if they should try opening this door as well when the sound came again, making them leap backward in fright. 

It was a knocking on the door. Just two knocks, and a deep voice that said at the same time, “knock, knock.”

Frisk stared, the words they’d just heard making no sense for a moment. Before they could jumpstart their thought process the voice came again, pitched a little higher like it was meant to be someone else, but still quite obviously the same speaker. 

“who’s there?”

There was a pause, and then the voice spoke again in its first tone. “iva.”

Frisk frowned, slowly coming out of the crouch they had fallen into when they’d jumped away from the door. The voice was definitely coming from the other side of it, not shouting but clearly audible. But it was talking to itself and… telling a knock-knock joke?

“iva who?” Said the voice in its slightly higher pitch. Frisk waited, and after a few moments the punch line was delivered. 

“iva sore hand from knocking so much.”

Their lips twitched into a smile at the same time they winced. It was a bad joke, but it was one of those bad jokes you couldn’t help but smile at. Frisk liked jokes, and for some reason the worse they were the more it made them laugh. 

Frisk waited to see if there would be a repeat of the performance, but the silence stretched on until they were convinced that whoever was on the other side had gotten bored of the game and left or simply fallen silent. Just when they were seriously beginning to consider what they should do next, the knock came again. 

“knock knock.”

Frisk smiled and waited. 

“who’s there?”

“nobel.”

“nobel who?”

“no. bell. that’s why i knocked!”

Frisk breathed out a silent chuckle. In the time it had taken to tell the joke, with the long pauses between each feed and response, they had crept up close to the door, so they now stood close beside it. It should be safe to stand so close, shouldn’t it? The door must be locked or something; Mama wouldn’t leave a door that had people on the other side of it - and which connected directly to her house - open for just anyone to walk through. 

Would she?

A minute or two passed, then, “knock knock,” came the voice, accompanied by the taps against the wooden door. 

Frisk stood, leaning against the stone just beside the door, listening to the jokes coming through. They were all terrible, some so bad Frisk had to stop themself from either groaning or laughing out loud. They had never heard so many knock-knock jokes all at once, but the voice seemed to have an inexhaustible supply. 

They began to wonder if they should respond, so the voice wouldn’t be alone in its joke telling. They hadn’t forgotten Mama’s warning, but there was a door… and anyone who told such terrible jokes couldn’t be _such_ a bad person, right?

“knock knock,” came the voice and the tap.

Frisk took a deep breath, and before they could think any better, answered the knock. “Who’s there?”

There was silence, but the quality of the silence felt subtly different than it had before. This silence felt startled, surprised that someone had actually replied. Frisk could hardly blame them. Who knew how long they had been there, knocking on a door and telling jokes? They probably never expected to actually get a response. The silence went on for so long that Frisk actually began to wonder if the joker was still there. Had they scared him off?

Finally the voice came again, sounding cautious even as it continued with the joke. “… double.”

A wide grin spread over Frisk’s face. 

“Double who?”

“w.”

Frisk snorted and laughed out loud, relief making them laugh as much or more than the joke itself. It was so nice to talk to someone new. It was so nice to know that people who were outside the Ruins could be as silly as the ones inside. 

“knock knock.”

“Who’s there?”

“wooden shoe.”

“Wooden shoe who?”

“wooden shoe like to hear another joke?”

Frisk giggled, nervous energy finally beginning to drain away. “Yes!”

The voice continued to tell terrible knock-knock jokes, and Frisk listened and laughed with them all, leaning against the threshold. Whoever was on the other side really did seem to have an unending supply of them. They wondered if he was reading them from a book. 

After a while, Frisk started to think they ought to tell some jokes as well. But as much as they loved knock-knock jokes, they had no memory for them. The kinds of jokes they knew…

“Hey,” they said before the next knock could come. “Do you know what happened to the cat who ate a whole ball of yarn?”

There was a pause, like the voice was giving it some real thought. “nope. what happened?”

“She had _mittens._ ”

Frisk was rewarded with a snorting kind of snigger. Their cheeks warmed as they grinned. It was nice to have someone laugh at their jokes.

“Why did the mother clam scold her children?”

“dunno. why did she?”

“Because they were being _shellfish._ ”

Frisk got through about half a dozen jokes, with the voice at least chuckling at them all, when they were interrupted before they could begin the next.

“so, uh. you weren’t who i was expecting to turn up. who’re you?”

It took a moment for it to register that what was said was a genuine question and not a setup for a different kind of joke. When it did register, it made Frisk almost panic. They had been telling jokes to each other through the door for over ten minutes, but it hadn’t really counted as actual _talking._ Now the voice wanted to talk, they wondered anew if this was such a good idea.

“Oh! Um… My… my name is Frisk.”

The voice seemed to process this for a moment. “huh. so what happened to the lady who usually comes?”

“Lady?” Frisk repeated blankly.

“yeah. she turns up now and then. she likes knock-knock jokes, too. she’s pretty good at them,” the voice added with a hint of admiration. 

Frisk continued to draw a blank, when suddenly it clicked. “Oh, that must be Mama! _You’re_ the reason she keeps coming down here!” It made sense when Frisk thought about it, but at the same time it really didn’t. If the one she talked to on the other side of the door was so nice, why would she think it wasn’t safe for them to come down here?

“… mama? she has a _kid?_ ”

“Yeah, but--“ They cut themselves off, a trace of caution keeping them from saying what they were about to. They were about to say that they weren’t _really_ Toriel's child, that they had fallen to the Underground and she had taken them in. They were about to admit, to a potentially dangerous stranger, that they were human. 

“It’s, uh… It’s just the two of us who live here, you know?”

“huh.” Frisk couldn’t tell what the voice’s feelings were on that. 

With silence threatening to take over, Frisk stumbled out the first question they could think of. “So, what’s your name?”

The voice paused, then chuckled. “heh. well, you’re not exactly like your mom, i guess.” Frisk wondered about that, but he went on before they could ask. “i’m sans. pleasure to, uh, ‘meet’ you.”

Frisk grinned wide. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Sans. I’m really happy to meet someone so nice. I didn’t know what to expect when I came down here.”

“’down here’?”

They nodded before they remembered that Sans wouldn’t be able to see the motion. “Yeah. This door, it’s the way out of the Ruins, isn’t it?”

“nope,” Sans said immediately, making Frisk’s heart lurch. “it’s the door _into_ the ruins. at least from my side.”

It took a moment for that to process through Frisk’s surprise. They chuckled. “Well, this door is at the end of a long tunnel in our basement. Mama doesn’t like me to come down here. I think she’s afraid that I’ll- I’ll go outside,” they said, barely keeping themself from saying ‘that I’ll leave.’ “She says the Underground is dangerous, so I should just stay at home.”

“sounds like a ‘mom’ kind of thing to do,” he commented. “but i’d have thought the ruins would be more dangerous, what with everything falling apart in there. i didn’t think anyone still lived in there until i met your mom.”

If they had been a monster, what Sans said would probably be true. The old city _was_ slowly crumbling. There was plenty of the city Frisk hadn’t explored yet, and some sections they probably never would because it refused to support even their slight weight. Only spiders and fluttering Whimsuns lived there. If Frisk were a monster, then outside probably would have been safer. But they were a human, and outside was a world of monsters who, if Mama was right, would all be trying to kill them. 

But they couldn’t say that to Sans. Sans didn’t sound like the kind of monster who would cause anyone harm, but they couldn’t be absolutely certain of that. And even if he wasn’t the type to try and kill humans, just knowing that they were human was sure to change what he thought of them. He might stop speaking to them. Frisk wasn’t willing to risk that, so they remained silent. 

“… and you coming ‘down here’ anyway seems like a very kid thing to do,” Sans said after a while. “did she give in and say it was ok, or…?”

“No,” Frisk admitted, a little guilt washing over them. “Mama doesn’t know I’m here. I just got so curious I had to see what it was she always went downstairs for. I didn’t even know for sure there would be a door like this.”

Sans chuckled on the other side of the door. It was a goofy kind of laugh. “not for sure, huh? but you thought there might be something like this?”

Yes, because a talking flower told them there was a way out hidden down here, but that didn’t seem like a great thing to admit. Frisk got the strong feeling that Flowey was unique to himself, with no other flowers in the Underground able to talk. They didn’t feel like trying to explain Flowey. 

“W-well, yeah,” they stumbled into a small lie. “Mama doesn’t want me to go outside the Ruins, and she didn’t want me to go downstairs. Seemed like they were pretty connected, yeah?”

“sound deductive reasoning, detective,” Sans agreed, still sounding amused. “so. will you be coming out?”

“No!”

The word came out louder than they’d intended. It echoed up the corridor like an accusation. Flushing, they looked at the door, as though they could see Sans standing on the other side of it. The silence seeping through the wood panels felt accusatory. 

“No,” they said more quietly. “I- I can’t leave the Ruins. Mama wouldn’t like it at all, and- and I really should get back before she notices I’m gone!” Frisk shoved away from the wall and trotted back up the corridor as quickly as the darkness allowed. “It was nice talking to you, Sans!” They called back over their shoulder. 

They fled back up the hallway, through the first door, round the one corner and back up the stairs. They stopped to catch their breath and to listen for Toriel, but heard nothing over their own gasping. 

They’d run away from that encounter. There was no point in trying to lie to themself about that. It had been going well, and they had almost convinced themself that it _would_ probably be safe enough to step outside. But when _Sans_ suggested it, the full weight of Toriel's warning seemed to hit them at once, combined with the memory of their first meeting with Flowey. 

It was probably a friendly invitation, just a desire to meet the person he had been exchanging jokes with. After all, Toriel probably talked to him face to face, why wouldn’t her kid? It was probably friendly, but in that moment it had seemed malevolent. It had seemed like an invitation to their death. Now as they replayed it in their mind, their memory insisted that something in his voice had sounded wrong, off. 

Frisk sat and breathed, and once they felt steadier they stood and went to their room. There was schoolwork to be done. And some more thinking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A wild Sans appears! See you next Saturday with Part 3, everyone! ♥
> 
> [Come say hi on tumblr!](http://ehtarwrites.tumblr.com/)


	3. Chapter 3

It was a long time before Frisk had another opportunity to descend the stairs. There wasn’t all that much to do in the Ruins, and unless Mama had to restock their supplies, her greatest concentration of activity seemed to be right at home with them. She did go out every day to check if anyone else had fallen down, but those outings never took very long. 

Frisk wondered what would happen if she ever did find someone else who had fallen. Another child perhaps. Would they be brought to the house too? Would all three of them live together? 

Would it make Frisk more willing to leave?

Other than those short trips, the only semi-regular times she ‘left’ the house were to go downstairs. The first time she went down after Frisk’s own adventure, they’d felt a brief stab of panic. They had told Sans that Mama didn’t want them down there and that they had snuck down in secret, but they hadn’t secured a promise from him that he wouldn’t say something to Mama. What if he told?

But when Mama had returned, it was with the same faint smile she normally did, a smile Frisk now knew to be the result of shared jokes. 

Their secret was safe.

They weren’t sure if they even _wanted_ to go back down the stairs at first. There was still the possibility that Sans would want to kill them if he knew they were human, though that seemed less and less likely with each passing day. But there was also the lingering embarrassment over their parting. They’d shouted in response to a perfectly reasonable question and then run off. Whether or not Sans would even want to talk to them again was almost a moot point, they weren’t sure they could face him. Or face the door, rather. 

The more days passed, though, the more they noticed their thoughts straying back to that conversation through the door. It had been nice to talk to someone who didn’t baby them all the time. Other monsters who lived in the Ruins didn’t baby them, exactly, but they weren’t the best conversationalists. In some ways Napstablook was the best one to talk to, and they didn’t visit too often. 

They did want to go back down, talk to Sans, as awkward as it might be. The challenge, much as with the first time, was in finding the right moment. 

Finally Mama did go out again to restock their cupboards. She seemed less hesitant about leaving than she had before, chuckling over how quickly the food ran out now there were two stomachs to fill. Frisk felt a small pang of guilt when they realized she was less hesitant now was because nothing bad had happened the last time. Because they had ‘obeyed her rules’ while she was gone. 

Still, Mama had barely gotten out of sight before they were descending the stairs for a second time. They might be breaking a promise, but since nothing bad was coming of it, it hardly mattered, did it?

The journey through the shadowed corridor seemed much shorter now, and hardly any time at all had passed before they could hear distant taps. They hurried their steps and made it in time to hear the next set accompanied by the familiar “knock knock.”

“Who’s there?” They called out, a little breathless from their jog down the last of the hallway. 

There was an expected pause as Sans worked out who it was that answered his call. Frisk bit their lip, worried he would decide not to talk to them, that he was upset over how they had left the last time and would refuse to respond. 

They sagged into the wall when they were finally answered with, “ash.”

“Ash who?” They smiled, seeing the punch line coming.

“bless you!”

Frisk chuckled, still trying to catch their breath, their back growing cold as they leaned against the stone wall. 

After a moment or two, Sans spoke again, but it wasn’t with the expected joke.

“i wasn’t sure i’d be hearing from you again, kid.”

Frisk didn’t answer right away. They hadn’t been sure, either, but it would be hard to explain that. They sighed, stuck their hands into their pockets. The cell phone and the toy knife were there to meet their fingers. 

“Mama’s been sticking pretty close to home. She just went out for the first time today. It’s the first chance I’ve gotten to come back down.”

“she seems like a pretty strict mom,” he commented. 

Frisk shrugged. “She just worries. She worries about me a lot. Always afraid I’ll get hurt, or not get enough to eat, or a hundred other things.”

Sans’ chuckle came through the door. “i get it. but i get it from the other side. i’ve got a little brother i worry about all the time.”

“You’ve got a brother?” They were unable to disguise the surprise in their voice. They didn’t know why that was so unexpected, but it was.

“oh, yeah,” Sans said, and even through the heavy wood they could hear the affection in his voice. “he’s a super-cool little bro, but you know. i still worry about him. he’s actually been pretty low lately, and i don’t know how to fix it. he wants to be in the royal guard, and thinks catching a human will do it.”

Frisk stiffened. There it was already, that mild threat that this new friend they had made would only want to catch or kill them if he knew what they really were. It made the nervous, as though Sans would be able to tell at any moment that they were human just from the sound of their voice, and then the door would prove no barrier. They breathed, reminding themself that nothing at all had changed, when an idea occurred to them. 

They had only ever heard this violent account of monsters in general from Mama. While they were certain that Mama wouldn’t lie deliberately, she might exaggerate if she was overly worried. It might not be so bad out there. And with Sans here, someone who actually lived on the outside, they could find out for sure. 

They just had to be careful with how they phrased their questions. 

“Does… the Royal Guard catch a lot of humans?”

Frisk’s question was answered with a snort. “they wish. they’re always on the lookout for them, though, hoping to find one to bring to the king.”

“Is that why your brother thinks catching one will get him in the Royal Guard?”

“yeah. that and humans are incredibly strong, even the little ones. catching a human would prove to everyone that papyrus is stronger than they think. they’d have to let him in, then.”

Frisk couldn’t help the incredulous smile spreading over their face. “Are humans really _that_ strong?”

Sans must have heard the laugh hiding in their voice, because his next words were more serious than before. “stronger than us. remember, they beat us in the war, countless dead monsters to zero humans. _zero._ when humans mean business it’s almost impossible to beat them.” He hesitated a second. “if you ever meet a human, kid, don’t go near it. you wouldn’t stand a chance.”

Frisk swallowed. If that was how the majority of monsterkind saw humans, then maybe Mama’s worries were justified. They had read about the war between humans and monsters before, but it had been written from the perspective of humans. It worked more to instill a fear of the monsters and their ability to steal souls, the threat they posed to every human they were near, and the glorious victory of that vanquished foe. 

It skimmed over the comparative death tolls. 

“But Papyrus is strong enough?” 

“he’s got me backing him up,” Sans said, sounding a little more cheerful. “brothers together can accomplish a lot.”

“I guess they can,” Frisk agreed. 

Internally, they were sinking into a kind of despair. Sans more or less told them in plain speaking that he was willing to capture humans. That he thought of them as dangerous, not just in general, but to monsters and monster safety. It wasn’t the same as saying that he would kill any humans he found on sight, nor was it even the same as _actually_ catching a human if he found one. But it still smothered a little of the hope they had that Sans would remain their friend if he knew, if they told him they were human. 

Frisk had, at the very back of their mind, hoped that they would be able to tell Sans the truth, and that he would be okay with it. They had dreamed of being accepted as they were, of opening the door to meet their new friend and the two of them going off into the Underground together to explore and have adventures. 

In the few moments they had allowed themself to dwell on that daydream their heart had soared, and they ached for that dream to be true. More than ever before, Frisk really _did_ want to leave the Ruins. 

“Has the Royal Guard… ever caught a human before?” They asked after a while. 

“a couple, sure. one will find their way down every once in a while.”

“… What happens to them after they’re caught?”

Sans was quiet for some time. The longer the silence went, the more sinister it seemed the eventual answer must be. When at last it came, it seemed Frisk’s worst fears were confirmed, and their heart sank even lower. 

“you probably don’t want to know, kid.”

No, they probably didn’t, at that. 

“Hey, Sans? What do you look like?” If they could never actually meet Sans face to face, then they would like to at least be able to imagine what he looked like. 

“huh? why you want to know a thing like that, kid?”

They shrugged, their shoulders scraping along the stone wall. “Just wondering, really. You sound nice. Gentle. Like you’re always smiling.”

Sans paused, then chuckled. “heh. you know, it’s actually hard to describe yourself. i’m kinda short, i guess, and yeah, usually smiling.”

Frisk smiled at the brief description. Short, huh? They wondered what Sans was comparing himself to. Was he short for a monster, most of whom Frisk had seen were their height or less? Would Sans be taller or shorter than them?

A follow up question interrupted their musing. “how ‘bout you? what d’you look like?”

Frisk thought rapidly through their options. They couldn’t just give any old answer. They could try to describe what a young Toriel might have looked like, but who knew what Mama might have already said or might say in the future?

In the end it wasn’t too hard to decide what to tell Sans. 

“You’re right, it is hard to describe yourself. I’m just… me. And I like striped shirts.”

Sans laughed, which reminded them of something important. 

“Hey, Sans. Why didn’t the hockey player want to pay for his dinner?”

“i dunno. why didn’t he?”

“Because he was a _cheapskate_.”

He laughed again, and Frisk grinned. 

Frisk stayed for as long as they dared, which was a little over an hour. They might have been able to push it a little more, but they didn’t want to risk Mama coming home to find them in the one place that was forbidden to them. Even though they hadn’t actually gone through the final door, who knew what Mama might do if she found out? She might make it somehow impossible to come back down again. 

They had only spoken to him twice now, but Frisk couldn’t stand the idea of Sans’ friendship being taken away from them. 

The two of them, for that entire hour, exchanged terrible jokes through the door. Some Frisk knew they had heard before, but they still laughed. They were also certain Sans must have heard many of their jokes, but he always laughed as well. It was more about the companionship than the jokes themselves. Frisk wondered if that were true for Sans as well, and if it were, why? He was on the outside, surely there were others out there he could talk to, and he had a brother as well. Why did he feel the need to come to a door to talk to a couple of people he couldn’t even see?

But then, Frisk wasn’t really alone, either. They had more friends in the Ruins than they’d had on the surface, plus Mama. Comparatively, there should be no reason why they would feel compelled to return here again and again. 

And yet, here they both were, exchanging jokes, the door between them absorbing every word like a sponge. Maybe it was because they couldn’t see each other. It gave their friendship a kind of freedom. 

Finally Frisk made their goodbyes, in a much less harried fashion than the last time. As they were turning to go, Sans’ voice made them pause. 

“you know, kid, i think you would be good for papyrus… i think he would cheer right up if he met you.”

Frisk didn’t reply to that, but thought a lot about it and its possible meanings when they got home.

* * *

It wasn’t easy to find times when they could sneak their way down the stairs to talk to Sans, nor very often, but it was possible. Toriel had to go out on a semi-regular basis in order to keep their cupboards stocked, and after a while she began to go out for ‘other errands.’

Mama never told them what those other errands were or where she went to accomplish them, but they often took her out of the little house for hours at a time. Once Frisk had gone out to see if they could find her in the Ruins when she was out on one of those trips, but had no luck at all. Wherever she had gone, it was in one of those places that was inaccessible to them. Despite their curiosity, Frisk never asked her what it was she did on those trips, just like they had never asked about the stairs. It seemed a little unfair, now, to ask about a secret like that when they were keeping one as well. 

With Mama being absent more often, and Frisk eventually able to trust that those trips away would take at least an hour, they were able to descend the stairs more often. 

“What did the zero say to the eight?”

“i dunno. what did it say?”

“Nice belt!”

“heh heh.”

Frisk loved going down the stairs to talk through the door. It was an outlet, almost, a clandestine bit of adventure they could have which no one even knew about. No one except Sans, and he was sharing the adventure with them. 

“knock knock.”

“Who’s there?”

“ho ho.”

“Ho ho who?”

“you know, your santa impression could use some work.”

They wondered on occasion if Sans was also sneaking away from something in order to be there at the door. It hardly seemed likely that he could spend every single day sitting there, and yet Frisk never had a time when they would go down the stairs and Sans _wouldn’t_ be there. The tapping and Sans’ voice on the other side were always waiting for them by the time they arrived. 

Frisk wanted to ask him how he was able to spend so much time beside a door that normally didn’t talk back, but was afraid of what the answer would be. That he knew or suspected they were human, and he was just lying in wait for the time they finally set foot outside. 

“How does a computer catch fish?”

“dunno. how does it?”

“With its internet.”

They did exchange more than just jokes through the door, and one day Frisk got an answer to that question without even having to summon the courage to ask. 

“you know, your mom used to come down every day, and we’d trade jokes just like this. then all of a sudden she stopped. made me worry, really. any idea why the change in routine?”

It was probably because she had found a young human on her rounds of the Ruins, and had less spare time to come down the stairs. Less time and less freedom, as Frisk doubted Mama wanted to be seen going up and down the stairs _every_ day by the child who wasn’t allowed to do the same thing. 

They couldn’t tell Sans that, but unfortunately they were getting used to lying. 

“Maybe because I started schooling not too long ago? Mama is my only teacher, and it takes a lot of time.”

“that makes sense,” he said after a minute. “and i only ‘met’ your mom a few months back, so i’ve never been around for a school schedule before.”

It was easier to lie, to think of stories that sounded true and to say them convincingly, but it got no easier to live with the guilt of lies. In fact, the more lies they told, the harder it became to ignore the weight of deceit across their shoulders. They lied to Sans by pretending to be a monster, they lied to Mama by pretending to be obedient, and never did they feel the weight more than when the one person who knew all the truth would appear and grin at them. 

Flowey knew. He knew it all somehow, and he loved to turn up at unexpected times and make sure Frisk knew that. Most of the time he was content to just grin at them from a distance, but occasionally he would say something. 

_“Finally got the courage to go down, huh? But what’s the matter, you’re back again already?”_

_“I get it, you don’t want to risk losing this new friend if he finds out you’re a good for nothing human.”_

_“You don’t **know** he’ll reject you, though. You could prove his ideas about humans are wrong. Except, oh wait, you’re already a liar. Since the moment you met him. So there’s that.”_

_“Poor Toriel. She thinks she has the two of you each all to herself. **Both** of you are lying to her.”_

_“Don’t you just wish you could leave? See those places he keeps talking about?”_

_“You can’t trust him, though. I know. I’ve met him.”_

_**“You’d be dead before you could blink.”** _

Frisk did their best to ignore everything Flowey said, but it was hard. They could deny everything he said, convince themself none of it was true while they were awake, but once they were asleep…

That was when the nightmares kicked in. 

They didn’t come every night, but still often enough to make restful sleep seem rare. Mostly they started out with them finally deciding that they would leave the Ruins. They came into the dream just knowing that they would be leaving, that _today_ was the day. They would go down the stairs, and without exchanging a single joke, they would tell Sans that they were coming out. 

The door would open, and for some reason it would be bright outside, even though they were underground. They would go to step through the door, but a figure would appear before they could cross the threshold. It wasn’t tall, and the light behind it made it impossible to distinguish any features. Frisk had no idea what Sans looked like, but they knew with the certainty of dreams that this was him. 

The two of them would stand, staring at each other a while, and then Sans would thrust his hand out to them. They never got a good look at the hand, but it was strong as Frisk automatically clasped it in a handshake. 

“nice to meetcha, kid,” he would say, in the same voice that told those awful jokes. And then the hand wrapped around Frisk’s would tighten until they screamed, until they felt bones begin to crack. 

“bad idea.”

The one consolation of the nightmares was that was where Frisk would wake up. 

There was a little variety to them. Sometimes Frisk got out, met Sans, and they went along together, just like in the their daydreams, but there was always something that made Sans decide Frisk was too dangerous to have around. Sometimes they never left the Ruins, and instead of Sans, it was Flowey that attacked them. He got impatient with them, and hundreds of those vines burst out of the ground and attack them, burying them in cold, heavy vegetation. 

Once they dreamt that Mama found out that they had been lying, that they meant to leave, and she locked herself in her room and wouldn’t come out. Frisk left the Ruins, with Mama’s sobs echoing down the corridor. 

Flowey and their own dreams did everything to make them miserable, to make them certain that everything and everyone around them was full of hate and suspicion. But when they stopped and paid attention, reality was different. Mama was full of love and smiles, and whatever Flowey might say, they knew it was meant for them, and not those children who had come before. And as for Sans…

“knock knock.”

“Who’s there?”

“ya.”

“Ya who?”

“heh. i’m excited to ‘see’ you, too.”

Sans never said anything that could be thought of as really malicious, or even threatening. In fact Frisk was fairly certain that he enjoyed their company as much as they enjoyed his, that he looked forward to the days when Frisk could make it down the stairs, to the door. He even sounded happy the day he noticed the frequency of their visits increasing. 

“hey, kid. made it back sooner that i thought you would.”

“It’s getting easier to come back. Mama is going out more often.” The grin on their face faded a little as they realized what that meant. “She’s trusting me more.”

Mama _was_ trusting them more, because she thought they were a good, obedient child, that they were following the rules whenever she went out. So she was going out more, secure in the false knowledge that Frisk would ‘continue’ to obey her. And how was this increase of trust rewarded? With more disobedience, more lies. 

“makes sense,” Sans had said, unaware of the storm of guilt and self-recriminations occurring on the other side of the door. “you are getting older, after all.”

“Yeah. I guess I am…”

Once or twice Sans would ask them if they wanted to come outside for a bit. The offer would always follow on the heel of Frisk mentioning how bored they were inside the Ruins, or how a place Sans described sounded interesting. It always made sense for Sans to mention it when he did, but each time Frisk felt a small jolt, a little stab of panic that their friend was trying to lure them out into a trap.

Even awake, the shadow of their nightmares was hard to shake. 

The last time he had asked, though, Frisk hadn’t replied right away. The temptation to leave was high that day, and they sat, weighing the risks very carefully, for the first time actually thinking they might open the door. 

They had taken too long to answer, and Sans interrupted their thoughts. 

“heh, forget it. i’m sorry, kid, it’s unfair to keep asking a question like that. i know you don’t like disobeying your mom. and i shouldn’t ask you to do it more. i just thought… you and papyrus would get along great. plus it might be nice to show you around. stop in at grillby’s, that kind of thing. sorry. forget it.”

“It’s not that,” they said before they could think of it. For some reason, Sans suddenly putting himself on the opposite side of the argument had them doing the same. “I mean, you’re right, I don’t like doing that, but… I kinda _do_ want to leave, to go out and see things out there. But I can’t leave Mama alone. It would break her heart. “

“it’s not forever, you know. you can come back any time you want to.”

“I’m not sure it works like that.” They thought about Toriel, how she would react if they actually left the safety of the Ruins and whether or not she would even _allow_ them to come back. Probably, but she wasn’t the biggest obstacle to their returning. It was the rest of monsterkind - if they would leave enough of Frisk for them _to_ return. 

“look, kid - frisk. it all comes down to just how determined you are. how much you want to come out and how much you want to stay. what you do and what happens next, it all depends on your determination.”

In the shadows on their side of the door, Frisk dug into the dirt with the toe of their shoe. It all came down to them and what they decided to do, huh? But it was so much easier to think of things as being mostly out of their control…

“I was determined, but Mama…” It sounded feeble even to themself.

“have you given up?”

Frisk didn’t answer. No answer felt right. 

“i wouldn’t blame you if you had, you know,” Sans said. Muffled sounds came through the door, like he was settling into a more comfortable position. “i give up on things all the time. sometimes i can give up on a dozen things before i even leave my room. it’s not the worst thing in the world a person can do. but, choose one. give up or press through. don’t keep wishing one way while holding on to the other. ok?”

“… okay.”

Frisk scrubbed at their eyes irritably. They were prickling treacherously, and it wasn’t due to dust. 

They let the silence go on for a time. Frisk could only assume that Sans was spending the time in thought as they were. But who knew for sure? They couldn’t see him, had never seen him. For all they knew he had toys to play with whenever the conversation flagged. 

When they felt they could speak without sniffling, they broke the silence. 

“Sans… Would you hate me if I told you something? Something about me?”

It took a while for him to answer. “… i doubt there’s anything you could say that would make me hate you, kid. just be sure you really want to say before you do. you can’t _un_ say something.”

Frisk thought about it, thought about all the potential consequences of admitting that they were human. Daydreams and nightmares both pressed close, imposing their disparate visions of what the future could hold on them, confusing the present. Alone in the dark, they grew cold with the stillness and indecision. 

“Hey, Sans?”

“yeah, kid?”

“Do you know why seagulls fly by the sea?”

“… no. why do seagulls fly by the sea?”

“Because if they flew by the bay, they’d be bagels.”

Sans chuckled, and even though it sounded strained, it made Frisk smile a little. So long as they could share bad jokes and good laughs, things couldn’t be too bad. So long as Frisk had this, staying in the Ruins wouldn’t be so bad, would it? Even if it were forever?

Choose one. Stay or go, but don’t hold one and wish for the other. There was no guarantee that if they decided to leave, that they wouldn’t then wish they had stayed…

Whatever they did, Sans was right. It came down to their choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Decisions, decisions... Two more chapters to go, see you all next Saturday! 
> 
> I'm [on tumblr](http://ehtarwrites.tumblr.com/) if anyone wants to drop a line!


	4. Chapter 4

“Sans, would you kill a human if you met one?”

Absolute silence met their abrupt question. It went on so long that Frisk began to wonder if Sans had just left, or maybe fallen asleep. He did that, sometimes, would pass out in the middle of a conversation. 

Then a tired kind of chuckle leaked through the wood of the door. “jumping straight into the big questions today, huh, kid?”

Frisk bit their lip. They had kind of leapt right into the ‘question and answer’ portion of their day. Normally they would begin and end with jokes and keep the serious or semi-serious stuff in the middle somewhere. But they had decided to ask that question the night before, and they were afraid that if they didn’t ask it right away, they would chicken out and never ask. So it had come bursting out of them almost as soon as the door came into view. 

And now the question was out there, the words spoken, and there was no way to unsay them. 

“I guess so,” they said. “Sorry.”

_‘Sorry,’_ but they wouldn’t take it back. They wouldn’t even try. 

Sounds of shifting came from the door. “what brought this up?” He didn’t sound upset by the question, or suspicious, or even tired. In fact he sounded remarkably neutral, like Frisk had just asked him his opinion on onions and he wanted to know why. It made them feel just a little bit better.

“I don’t know, really. I guess because… well, you know how I was saying how Mama was teaching me history and stuff?”

“yeah?”

“Well, I’ve gotten to the war. Between humans and monsters. We’re going over what it was about, how it was fought, and how at the end the humans locked monsters down here. Well… Mama was telling me how even though humans are so much stronger than monsters, if a human came down here now, they wouldn’t stand a chance. They would be killed by someone. That practically every monster in the Underground would be after them.

“That doesn’t seem right to me. I man, the war and everything happened so long ago. Does anyone even remember it that well? I don’t even know what a human is supposed to look like, there are no pictures in my books.”

Frisk took a breath. “It just seems… _wrong…_ that anyone would try to hurt someone else like that. So I… I want to know. Would _you_ kill a human if you saw one?”

They expected a long pause before Sans answered, and they weren’t disappointed. The entire time the silence ran on, it felt like Frisk’s entire body was being squeezed. Now was when they found out, when they would finally know what would be waiting for them if they stepped through the door. Either a friend or an enemy. 

Finally, “… might do.”

“But-!”

“kid, think about it. you want out of those ruins, right? well, all the rest of us want out of the underground. we’re suffocating down here, and it’s the humans who put us here. if _you_ saw one, if you came across someone who had caused you and everyone you knew so much suffering… wouldn’t you strike out at them?”

“To what purpose, Sans?” They choked out the question, desperately holding back tears. “What would that accomplish?”

“freedom. to break the barrier requires a human soul. the only way to obtain one is to take it out of the human. and there’s no way to do that without killing the human it’s inside.” He sounded so tired as he said it. More tired than they had ever heard him sound before. There was no tone in his voice, only the low gravel of one grinding out words that had to be said. “kill one human and all monsters go free. seems like a pretty sweet deal to me.”

And there it was. That was it. So long as the door stood between them, they could remain friends. So long as neither knew what the other looked like, they could pretend they were both monsters, and everything was fine. But if Frisk ever opened the door and that illusion was shattered, then so would the fragile friendship they’d built over the months. He, and apparently every monster in the Underground, would be out for their soul. 

Oddly, Frisk realized that they didn’t mind the idea in and of itself. If positions were reversed, they could see why killing would seem like a viable option. They thought if a monster did kill them for their soul, they probably wouldn’t hold it against them. 

Then again…

“And then what?” Their voice was low, harsh. They might not take being killed personally, but they were still angry. “You go to the surface, and then you’ll be surrounded by humans all the time. Could you face the family of whoever you killed and tell them what you’d done? Could you face any of them? Or would you hate them all so much you’d just kill them _all?_ ”

Frisk stopped, realizing that their voice had been rising so it bounced and echoed down the corridor. 

They took a breath. They could understand why someone would kill to achieve the freedom of an entire population. That wasn’t why they were angry. But then, why _were_ they angry? Was it the idea of _Sans_ killing them, the betrayal of friendship? Or was it the idea of his being capable of murder, of what effect it would have on him if he killed someone?

Sans still hadn’t said anything by the time they’d calmed down. They weren’t sure if that was a good or a bad sign. 

“… I don’t think you could do it, Sans. You say you would, and you might even believe it, but I don’t think it’s true.”

Sans’ reply was so quiet that Frisk could barely hear it through the door. “why not?”

They shrugged, shoulder blades scraping over bricks. “It’s like you said once. Anyone who likes bad jokes as much as us can’t be all bad. And anyone who could kill like that… I can’t imagine there being any good in them.”

Only silence answered them, but that was alright. They were abruptly tired, all the way down to their bones. If Sans did reply, they weren’t sure they would have the energy to continue the conversation. 

Rather than wait, Frisk pushed away from the wall. “I’m going to go now. See ya, Sans.”

Sans didn’t call out to them as they retreated back up the stairs.

* * *

Frisk ignored the stairs for some time after that. They weren’t frightened of what Sans might say or what he might do if they went back down, nor were they particularly embarrassed by what they had said. They just… needed time away from Sans to make a decision. 

Were they going to stay, or were they going to leave?

They didn’t spend too much time actively agonizing over the question, though there was certainly plenty to consider. What would happen to Mama if they left? Would Mama try to stop them? How safe could they expect to be outside? where would they sleep, what would they eat, where would they even be _going…?_

Like the stairs, those question led into unknown places, unknown answers, and Frisk avoided them as well. 

Rather than try to answer any of those questions, Frisk went about their day to day routine just as usual. They did their schoolwork, helped Mama with chores, and hung out with the monsters who lived in the Ruins. They got recipe ideas from Vegetoid, practiced their dance moves with Migosp, and learned about some of the history of the Ruins from the Froggits. On good days they were able to talk to Whimsun a little before she would run away. Moldsmal was never much for conversation, and neither was Dummy, but they both provided patient ears when Frisk wanted to ramble. Or something like ears, anyway. Even Napstablook came a couple of times, actually talked to them about their passion for music, and promised to share what they had done if Frisk ever made it to their house. 

When they weren’t doing any of those things, Frisk spent their time doing their best to repair an old house they’d found. 

It had started by accident, really. They had been exploring, pushing the boundaries of their available world as far as they could when they found a house that was holding up against time and neglect better than most and which was not, surprisingly, taken by some other monster. They had wandered in, looking around, wondering what sort of family had once lived there, where they had gone, and if they were still alive somewhere. 

As they went through the rooms, populating it with imagined memories, they’d put a few things to rights. Picking up a chair here, wiping a window there… when they’d made a whole tour, leaving the house empty again felt wrong. Like turning away a lost pet which had come begging at your door. So the next day they had come back and set to cleaning. And the next day, and the next. 

When the house was as clean as they could make it, they’d moved on to the next logical step: repair. 

It was hard work, work they were unfamiliar with, but it was satisfying to undo the damage of time. As the old house slowly came back to life under their care, Frisk allowed their imagination to spin out to the rest of the Ruins, what it would all look like repaired and perfect. They imagined what it would be like to repair it all themself. 

Impossible, of course. It was an entire city. According to Toriel it had once housed the entire monster population before they spread out to the rest of the Underground. It was a large place, and even a lifetime wouldn’t be enough to repair it all alone. 

An impossible task, but still nice to dream about. Still a nice escape while they tried to decide. 

Flowey appeared from time to time. Maybe it was just familiarity, or having seen him so much and nothing really bad happening since that first meeting, but it was getting harder to take him seriously. It didn’t help that what he was saying any more in attempt to get them to leave was starting to take on a ridiculous edge. 

“You know, I’ll bet the goat lady is feeding you sweet things just so you’ll taste good when she bakes you.”

Frisk began to wonder what it was Flowey really wanted. Did he really want them to leave, or was he just tormenting them because he could? If he did want them to leave, was it so they could do something, or did he just want them gone because he didn’t like them?

None of the motivations Frisk tried to apply to the flower seemed to fit. All of his actions contradicted themselves. Eventually Frisk gave up trying, and did their best to ignore the flower as well.

Days turned to weeks, then a month. The house Frisk worked on became more and more like a home, and Frisk tried to picture what their life would be like if they never left the Ruins. Fixing homes no one would ever come back to, learning the history of a people they were never allowed to see. Watching as Toriel grew old and died, and then they would be the one watching for humans. Humans to take in and keep, and start the whole process over again. 

Doing their best not to think of it at all, Frisk came to their decision all at once.

* * *

The knocks echoed down the corridor, but Frisk didn’t rush down to answer them. If they ran, then he might hear their footsteps. He would know it was them, would know that it wasn’t Toriel coming to see him today. 

He would know it was them soon enough. No need to broadcast their approach. 

As a result, they got to the door in time to hear Sans tell the punch line of his joke.

“snow who?”

“snow use, i forgot my name again.”

Frisk smiled, and as quietly as they could, settled into their usual spot against the lintel and waited. 

_Tap tap._ “knock knock.”

“Who’s there?” They asked as quietly as they dared, as quietly as they could and still be heard. 

“… noah,” came the eventual answer. 

“Noah who?”

“noah good place to get a bite to eat?”

Frisk chuckled breathily. _As if I would in here,_ was their only thought. 

They stood, waiting for the next joke to come. It was their routine, how these visits always went, and Frisk had looked forward to the ritual to ease them back into a comfortable rhythm. After the way they had parted last time and Frisk’s long absence, it felt like they could use it. 

But the silence just went on and on, becoming more and more awkward, and Frisk began to wonder if they ought to speak next, crack a joke, anything. 

“hey there, kiddo.”

Frisk’s knees actually felt a little weak with relief. “Hey, Sans.”

“good to hear your voice again. …i wasn’t sure you’d be coming back.”

“Yeah…” Frisk looked at their feet. “Me either.”

“i’m glad you did,” he said, and he sounded it. It was hard to tell how Sans was feeling just from his voice a lot of the time, a combination of the muffling effect of the door and Sans’ natural tone always making it sound like he were telling a joke. But he did sound a little… relieved. “look, kid. i don’t often do this, but… i wanted to apologize for what i said. it wasn’t a cool thing to say to a kid i guess… i guess i hadn’t given it much thought, y’know? what i would really do if i found a human. what i would really do, not what i’m supposed to do or what i think i would do. there’s actually a big difference, and i hadn’t thought about any of that before.”

“i have been thinking about it now,” he said ruefully. “thought about what i said, what you said, and all the rest. and… i think you were probably right. i probably couldn’t do it. not unless i really had to. and most humans… they probably aren’t all that bad. just people like us, with good and bad. i dunno, i just… y’know. sorry, is all.”

On their side of the door, Frisk let go of the breath they had been holding, prickles at the corners of their eyes. It felt so stupid to get emotional over an apology, but it meant more than just Sans’ regret. It was hope, hope for what could be when the door opened. 

They had to laugh, or they would weep. “Thanks, Sans. That- that means a lot. I’m sorry, too, actually. I got a little carried away about the whole thing. Lost my temper. I didn’t mean to, but that’s no excuse. Sorry.”

“that’s okay, kid. don’t worry about it. friends?”

Frisk smiled. “Always.”

For a few moments, they just stood there, feeling better than they had in weeks.

“knock knock.”

“Who’s there?”

“gray z.”

“Gray Z. who?”

“gray z. mixed up kid.”

And they laughed. They laughed for the bad joke, for relief, for the affection they could hear in Sans’ voice, clear as glass. They were friends still, friends again, or possibly friends for the first time. The door still stood between them, but the wall felt as though it had come down. 

“How many apples grow on a tree?”

“how many?

“All of them.”

“ha ha!”

It was like how it had been before, but better. 

“knock knock.”

“Who’s there?”

“who?”

“… Who who?”

“is there an owl in there?”

They almost wished that it would go on forever. Almost thought they could accept that. But they had made their decision. They would hold to it. 

“What animal unlocked the farm gate?”

“dunno. which?”

“The tur-key.”

The jokes wound down after a time. It was almost time to do what they had really come back down the stairs to do. Frisk felt their determination begin to slip, and they held on tight. They’d made their choice. Time to see it through to the end. 

Before that, though, there was one more question they wanted to ask. One more question through the door.

“Hey, Sans?”

“yeah, kid?”

“Have you ever heard of a… talking flower?”

“… this isn’t a joke about tulips, is it, kid?”

Their lips twitched despite themself. “No. I mean an actual flower that talks.”

“this another thing your mom is teaching you about?”

Frisk hesitated. They wanted to tell the truth. The feeling of newly achieved levels of closeness with Sans practically demanded that they tell nothing but the absolute truth, to not taint the waters with fresh lies, but…

_“You can’t trust him, though. I know. **I’ve met him.** ”_

Frisk was sure that the first part was just Flowey trying to sow suspicion, to drive a wedge between them. To scare Frisk. But what if the second part were true? What if they had met? What would Sans’ reaction be if he knew that they had been talking to Flowey this whole time?

Frisk trusted Sans, more than they trusted Flowey. And it was that mistrust of the flower which led them in the direction of lies once again. 

“Yeah. I was wondering if you had heard of them. Or seen one?”

“sure.”

Sans’ quick answer made them blink. They cast a look at the wood of the door, surprised. 

“yeah, I see them plenty,” he went on, unaware of their reaction. “they grow all over the place in waterfall. they’re called echo flowers. they repeat back the last thing they ‘heard’ over and over until they hear something new. so i guess you could call them a talking flower. kinda pretty, they’re blue and glowy. kinda creepy too, though, when you get a bunch of them all whispering at once.”

Frisk exhaled. They were a little disappointed, but also relieved that Sans wasn’t giving them a description of Flowey. Flowey had probably been lying about meeting Sans. He was just trying to freak Frisk out. 

“That sounds cool,” they said, and then stopped. 

It was time. 

“Hey, Sans?”

“yeah, kid?”

“I’ve decided. I’m going to leave the Ruins.”

Sans grunted, a surprised sort of sound. “really, kid? you sure that’s what you want to do?”

They nodded. “Yes. I love it here with Mama, but… I want to see more of the world than just a forgotten, crumbling city. I want to see the places you’ve told me about. I want to meet--“ 

_‘You,’_ they almost said. 

“- a- all of the monsters that live here, not just the ones who are stuck in here with me.” Their mouth twitched into a sad smile. “I don’t want to suffocate in here.”

“hmph. well, i was wondering if… so. will you be coming out now? i don’t have a red carpet for ya just now.”

“No.” They started twisting at the cuffs of their sleeves, a nervous habit from when they’d been very young which rarely came back to them. “No, not now. Not today. But in the next couple of days. I want- I need to tell Mama that I’m going. I’m not going to sneak out and leave her wondering what happened to me.”

Sans paused a moment. Frisk their cuffs even tighter. 

“you know that will probably only make things harder for you. she won’t say yes, and you’ll have to fight for what you want. can you do that?”

The thought of actually arguing with Toriel made them feel a little ill. Toriel was always so kind, so gentle with them, and they were going to spurn the gift of her protection and care. The kind of hurt that would inflict, and the loneliness that they would be leaving her with… It _would_ be easier to leave without having to see all of that written across her face, but…

“I have to. I can’t just disappear on her like that. What kind of person would that make me? I don’t want Mama to hate me… I don’t want to be a coward.”

Frisk stared at the door, waiting for a reply. It seemed to take forever for it to come. 

“okay, kid. you do what you think is right. whatever happens, i’ll be here, waiting for you.”

“… I know, Sans,” Frisk said, suppressing a tiny shiver. “I know you will be.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Such drama. Next chapter is the last one, see you on Saturday!
> 
> I'm [on tumblr](http://ehtarwrites.tumblr.com/) if anyone wants to drop a line!


	5. Chapter 5

Frisk stumbled, and hissed as they crashed into the side of the passage. That was not the side of their body they wanted to come into contact with anything, let alone stone. A flare of pain went through them like a wave of fire, and they had to stop and breathe a moment before they went on. 

They weren’t a coward, at least. They’d told Toriel that they intended to go out and see the rest of the Underground. They even said they knew the stairs were the way out - though not that they’d already been down them many times. 

At first they thought Toriel was taking the news better than they had dared hope for. Her expression had been so neutral, and she’d just gotten up from her chair, saying she had to do something. 

It took a second for Frisk to realize what she might be doing, and for them to rush after her down the stairs.

She’d been going down the passage with purpose, that purpose being the destruction of the doorway leading out!

They’d argued. Toriel had used her most authoritarian voice, telling them to go back upstairs and forget leaving the Ruins. It was too dangerous, and she was going to make certain they stayed safe. But Frisk refused to do as they were told. They stood their ground, determined. 

It was worse than anything they had imagined, fighting with Mama. She had actually attacked them, saying if they wanted out, they had to prove they were strong enough to survive out there.

Mama was much, much stronger than any other monster living in the Ruins. It was no wonder they were all intimidated by her. She used fire magic against them, and while they managed to avoid being roasted alive, they weren’t walking away unscathed. 

The fight seemed to go on forever, but at last Mama gave up. She cried, saying how she couldn’t save even one child. She hugged them tight and they grit their teeth against the pain as she pressed against their fresh burns. As she held them, she whispered in their ear. She whispered her love, for them to be careful, and a warning. A name of one who would be out for them. Asgore. 

And then, somehow looking even more wounded than they, she left, walking back up the corridor to her empty home.

That blow almost finished them off. 

Now they were here, beyond the first door, walking up the corridor to the second door and what lay beyond. Even if they wanted to, there was no turning back. 

It seemed to take much longer to get up the corridor than it normally did. When the door finally hove into view, they nearly laughed with relief. They had begun to think this was all another bad dream, that the corridor would go on forever and they would never find the way out. But there was the door. There was freedom, only a few steps away. 

And then Flowey appeared. They stopped dead in the corridor. The flower smirked at them, one tiny obstacle between them and the door. 

Their heart raced. Did Flowey intend to start a fight, now they no longer had Toriel's protection? They had become more skilled since the day they had fallen… but they were also hurt, and Flowey was stronger than he looked. 

“Howdy,” he said. “Good to see you finally made it.”

Frisk didn’t reply, but shifted their feet, getting ready to dodge any incoming attack. It was hard - their left side lit up with an echo of flame, constricting their movements. 

Flowey saw the movement and the pained expression on their face, and the smirk grew. But he made no move to take advantage. “So you decided to really leave,” he said instead. “Let’s see if everyone is as _nice_ as you seem to think they are out there. If they treat you as well as they did _here._ ”

With that and a small laugh, the flower disappeared, leaving them alone in the corridor once again. They waited a moment just to be sure, and then crossed the final few feet to the door. 

They needed a friend. 

They hesitated, palms against the rough, aged wood. This was the final barrier, the one they had come to again and again but never crossed, the one which had seemed so immovable… and they were about to break through. 

For the first time since they had found the door, Frisk raised their fist and knocked, and waited for a familiar voice to ask, “who’s there?”

It never came. Frisk knocked again, louder, adding their voice to be sure they were heard. “Knock knock!”

Still no reply. Confusion and a little bitterness seeped into their heart. Hadn’t Sans said he would be here, waiting for them? They’d believed him implicitly - after all, he’d always been there before. Was this going to be the only time he wasn’t on the other side, when Frisk was going to open it? Where had he gone?

They wondered if they should wait until Sans came back, but quickly discarded the idea. There were here, they were ready, they were leaving _now._ They would find Sans once they were through. 

Like a diver preparing for the deepest plunge of their life, Frisk took a breath, twisted the stiff and heavy handle, heaved against the rusted hinges, and stepped through the door.

* * *

It was cold on the other side of the door. Colder than they would have ever expected it to be. Snow spread across the ground in a thick blanket, even under the trees that crowded close. 

Trees? Snow? Were they still underground, or had the door led the back to the surface somehow?

They looked around hoping to see… something. Anything to reassure them that leaving the Ruins wasn’t such a terrible idea. They looked for any sort of shape which might prove to be a monster - a monster waiting for them with a terrible joke. 

Nothing waited for them. Just a barely-there trail in the snow, weaving around the trees and into the distance. With no other clue which way to go, Frisk followed the path, hugging their arms close to stay warm.

It was eerily silent in the underground forest. There was no birdsong, no chittering of squirrels or chipmunks, no rustling of leaves or branches as breezes played through the trees. They shuddered, their weariness growing as they realized that the reason none of these noises were there was because there was nothing to make them. No birds, no squirrels or chipmunks, and no wind. The forest was still and empty, as much a mausoleum as the Ruins had been. It held the shape of something alive, but it was just a sham. A pretend forest buried underground, complete with a winter’s snow, which they were now traipsing through like an actor across a stage. 

Or an intruder through a graveyard. 

They hurried on. 

Eventually they came to a place where the trees receded a little, and the trail they’d been following spilled out onto what looked like an actual road, one that was used and maintained regularly. They looked up and down, but still saw no one. One direction seemed to go more or less the direction they had come from, while the other led further into the empty forest. 

They took the second direction. What would be the point going back now?

They walked for what felt like hours in the frozen woods, wondering if this was all there was to the rest of the Underground, when the silence was suddenly broken. A snap, like a gunshot, rang through the trees, echoing through the snow.

Frisk spun, heart in their mouth. 

There was nothing. Nothing at all save a broken branch laying across the path. 

They looked around, scanning the trees on all sides. They _knew_ they had heard something, was sure it had been _behind_ them, but there was nothing. Not even in the trees. 

They were alone. But even if they couldn’t _see_ anyone else, they could _feel_ them. They were alone, but… someone else was there. 

Their fingers reached for their cell phone. They wondered if Toriel would answer if they dared to call her now. Instead of the cell, though, they found the toy knife. It still seemed so unlikely that a knife made of plastic would be any good in a fight… but would it help if they used it?

Hand in their pocket and ears open for any sound, Frisk turned back to the path and went on. 

It didn’t take long before they heard sounds coming from behind them. Footsteps. Steady footfalls, keeping up with them but never coming any closer. Frisk focused on the path, keeping track of just how close the footfalls were and doing their best not to run. 

If they ran, the footsteps might chase.

Up ahead on the path, Frisk could just make out something that wasn’t trees. It looked constructed, but they couldn’t make out what exactly it was. Even when they were closer, it was hard to tell. It was a small bridge, but on top of it had been added some sort of construction made of large boards. It almost looked like a frame, but what exactly it was meant to accomplish was a mystery. 

They stopped before setting foot on the bridge. If the Ruins had taught them anything, it was that monsters liked puzzles and traps, and that if something looked suspicious, there was probably a reason. 

They stopped, but the footsteps did not. They came closer now that Frisk wasn’t moving, until they were right behind them. 

Frisk didn’t turn. They were frozen in place, caught between a trap and an unknown monster, cold, hurt and too tired to think of a good way out. 

The footsteps stopped right behind them. Now they could hear the breathing of whoever it was that had followed them through the woods. Still they didn’t turn around. They weren’t sure that they could even if they tried. 

“Human. Don’t you know how to greet an old pal?”

Frisk’s blood nearly froze in their veins. They knew that voice. It was the same voice which had told them terrible jokes through the door, that laughed at the jokes they told in turn, and told them he was their friend… Except now, something was different. It sounded… flat. Angry.

_He said ‘human,’_ Frisk thought to themself, panic begin to rise. _He knows I’m human, knows what humans look like. And he knows it’s **me** because he said ‘old pal.’ Oh, god. He sounds so angry._

“Turn around,” said the familiar yet foreign voice. “And shake my hand.”

_Oh god. Oh god oh god oh god, he’s going to kill me. He’s angry I lied - or he lied - always knew and lured me out - he’s going to kill me! It was a mistake, I never should have left the Ruins. It was a mistake._

They clamped down on their shivering, shoved aside the panicked stream of thought racing circles in their brain. No. Whatever happened now, it was no mistake to leave the Ruins. There was no way they could have remained there forever and stayed sane. They’d made their decision, their determination had seen them through it, and now they would face whatever consequences that decision led to. 

Feeling as though they were floating, Frisk turned around to face the voice they had been friends with for so long. 

It wasn’t what they’d expected, or anything like what they’d imagined. 

It was a skeleton. Almost exactly their height so they could stare directly into the eye sockets, a permanent grin spread across the skull. A skeleton by itself - especially one that was wearing a blue hoodie - wouldn’t be enough to frighten Frisk, but this wasn’t _just_ a skeleton. This wasn’t like the wired together model of bones hanging in their old science classroom. This was a skeleton that was… _alive._ He had presence; he stood before them on his own power. As they stared into those black, empty eye sockets, there was no escaping the knowledge that someone was staring back. 

There was a motion. Frisk looked down and saw the skeleton’s right hand held out to them. Just bone. A hand of bones, long and slender, held together with who knew what, out for them to shake. They couldn’t help but notice that the finger ends all looked terribly sharp, like claws…

They swallowed hard, raised their head to look the skeleton directly in the face again. Whatever happened next, they would face it. 

They reached out and took the hand offered to them. 

The bones were warmer than they expected, and softer. In fact…

_Thpptphtphphhph…_

The grin on the skeleton’s face, somehow, widened even further, and two blue lights deep within the eye sockets flared to life like stars. 

“heh heh heh heh,” the skeleton laughed - only now he wasn’t just a skeleton. That laugh was too familiar. This was _Sans._ This was Sans holding their hand and laughing his goofy laugh. “the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick,” he said. “it’s always funny.”

They looked down. There was a small, pink, deflated whoopee cushion caught between their hands. How had they not noticed that before? As Sans took his hand back they saw that in addition to the hoodie, he was wearing a pair of black basketball shorts - nearly full length pants on him - and… pink fuzzy slippers?

“so you’re a human, huh?” Frisk’s head jerked back up. “that’s hilarious. explains some of your questions over the last few weeks, too.” They weren’t sure how, but Sans’ expression seemed to soften a little. “nice to finally meetcha face to face, kiddo. sans, if you couldn’t tell.”

Frisk chuckled, their breath puffing visibly in the air. “Yeah, I could tell. Frisk.” Their voice cracked and broke over their name, and they coughed. They were thirsty - how long had they been walking, and the fight before that… how long had it been since their last glass of water?

Sans stared at them, and it took a moment for them to realize that he was staring at the left side of their face. The attention made the burns throb anew. They winced. 

“Mama was upset when I told her I was leaving,” they said by way of explanation.

Sans twitched a little - surprised? He reached a bony hand towards Frisk’s face, as though to make certain the burns were really there, but stopped when Frisk flinched back. They couldn’t help it. The burns were still fresh, _anything_ touching them would hurt. They could only hope Sans didn’t think that they were flinching away from _him._

He turned away from Frisk, but he only stooped to gather a handful of snow. He turned back to them, and motioned as though to put it against their face. Frisk nodded, and hissed as the freezing stuff was pressed against their burns. 

“tell me what happened.”

So they did. They took the snow from Sans so he could step back and put his hands in the pockets of his hoodie. They told him what happened, from telling Toriel they were leaving until they actually went through the door. After an instant’s consideration, they left out Flowey and his parting words. 

By the time they’d finished the snow in their hand had melted, water running between their fingers and down their collar, the side of their face numb. They stared at their empty hand, rubbing their fingers together and remembering. 

“The way she kept telling me to fight her, to show her that I could survive out here, I think… I think she almost wanted me to kill her.”

“… did you?”

They looked up, incredulous, tears stinging at their eyes. 

Sans’ eyes had gone dark again, but flared back to life immediately. Without losing his grin, he managed to look shamefaced. “sorry, kid. bad joke, and not even the good kind.”

Frisk didn’t reply, but wiped at their neck where the melted snow had trickled. They hadn’t foreseen it being so cold outside the Ruins. They didn’t even have a coat. Would there be somewhere warm to rest soon?

“a human who calls a monster ‘mom,’” Sans murmured, apparently to himself. “that’s somethin’.”

Frisk looked at Sans, unsure how to respond to that, but was spared the trouble. Sans’ head jerked up, looking over their head to something behind them. 

“uh-oh. looks like papyrus is coming this way.”

They looked, but couldn’t see anything in the distance. Gently, Sans took hold of one of their elbows and began to steer them across the bridge.

“c’mon, let’s go, right through the gate. that’s right, papyrus made the bars too wide to stop anyone. right this way, kid. you see that conveniently shaped lamp? go hide behind that while i talk to my bro. i want you to see him before you actually meet him. go, go on.”

Frisk did as they were told, too dazed to do much else, and hid behind a lamp that seemed tailor made for them to hide behind. Why was there even a lamp outside…?

They didn’t get long to wonder over it, as Papyrus came charging into the clearing moments after they had ducked behind the lamp. They’d expected someone similar to Sans, and his brother was indeed a skeleton, but there the resemblance seemed to end. He was tall, wore something that looked like it was meant to be a superhero costume and which showed off a good portion of bare bones. And he was loud. Very loud. In comparison to Sans, and especially compared to the mausoleum hush of the Ruins, Papyrus was a foghorn, his voice reverberating through the trees and snow. 

Frisk kept as still as possible behind the lamp, listening to Papyrus admonish Sans for being lazy at his post, then as he went on about how he would catch a human and at last be allowed in the Royal Guard. 

They had to suppress more shivers the longer they listened. Sans was their friend, but what about Papyrus? It seemed he was determined to catch whatever or whoever he could, and wouldn’t care what happened to them after that. 

He seemed ridiculous, but Frisk began to fear the taller, screaming skeleton. When he at last left and Sans gave them the all clear to come out, Sans saw the concern written across their face. His grin widened.

“don’t worry about papyrus, kid. he’s harmless. even when he tries not to be.”

“It’s like you said, though.” They wrapped their arms around themself, trying to hold in as much body heat as possible. “He _really_ wants to catch a human. If he sees me…”

“he’ll cheer right up.” Sans chuckled at the look Frisk shot him. “seriously, kid, you got nothin’ at all to worry about when it comes to papyrus. i promise. and i don’t make those very often.”

“Hmm.” Frisk looked the direction Papyrus had gone, further along the narrow road they had been following. The loud monster was long out of sight, but that didn’t make them feel any better. Papyrus moved fast. If he spotted them it wouldn’t take long for him to catch them. But what other way was there to go?

“Well,” they said as steadily as they could. “I’m out. What’s next?”

“whatever you want,” Sans said with a shrug. “the best and worst part of freedom. i’d recommend you head to snowdin town first, though. you can get healed up, warmed up, and grab some grub there.”

“Which way is that?” They asked even though they were certain they knew the answer. Sure enough, Sans pointed in the same direction Papyrus had taken. 

“just follow the path, kiddo.”

Frisk sighed. “How long will it take us to get there?”

Sans tilted his head at them. “it’s not far, so it shouldn’t take you very long, even with a few puzzles along the way.”

The wording Sans used wasn’t lost on Frisk. They looked at him, heart sinking to their feet. “You aren’t coming with me?”

The grin somehow stretched. “wassamatter, kid? there’s nothing to be scared of, y’know. it’s just a long, dark cavern full of monsters. you can handle it.”

He must have read the riot of distress going on inside them, because his expression softened, the permanent grin taking a comforting cast. “hey, don’t worry. i’m not walking with you, but i’m not abandoning you, either. you’re not alone out here, kid. you got this old bag of bones in your corner, and i’ll be keeping a socket out for you.” One of the pinpoints of light that were Sans’ eyes flared bright for an instant, and then he winked. 

It wasn’t the most reassuring speech in the world, but Frisk _did_ feel better. They trusted Sans, and if he said he would watch out for them, then they would believe him. 

“You’ll still take me to Grillby’s, right? Like you said?”

He nodded. “sure will.” He reached out and gave their elbow a little reassuring squeeze, then patted their arm. “see you up ahead, frisk.” He turned away, walking back the way Frisk had come, slippers crunching in the ice and snow. 

Frisk watched until he was out of sight, and then turned back the way to the path. Sans said town wasn’t far, and they could really use a nap somewhere warm. A nap, something to eat, and something for their face. 

As they walked, their heart began to lift, excitement replacing fear. They’d done it! They were out of the Ruins, with the whole Underground to explore! And even if all the Underground really was out for them like Toriel had said, they had at least one friend on their side. 

Frisk hurried. The sooner they got to Snowdin, the sooner they would see him again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve had vague thoughts of doing chapters further on within the game canon, mostly focusing on how Frisk and Sans continue to interact. _But_ I don’t have any real plans of doing that right now, and rather than risk putting this in WIP limbo for all eternity, we’re calling it done for now. If more chapters happen down the road, we’ll consider them a bonus.
> 
> Anyone here for more Undertale, the next two Saturdays will feature one shots for my [Bones, Metal & Magic series](https://archiveofourown.org/series/826683), and then… we’re tapped out for now. ^^;
> 
> Thanks for reading, everyone, I hope you’ve all enjoyed! 
> 
> (I'm [on tumblr](http://ehtarwrites.tumblr.com/) if anyone wants to drop a line! ♥)


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